Synergy
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: In which Doctor White and Leilani (OC) work together to repair a Patch unit.


Today, William and Leilani are set to work together to repair a Patch unit that has gone out of commission. There will be a small observation team with them that consists of myself, Call, Raychel, Beck, and whomever else is interested in such a feat (which I anticipate would not be anyone, honestly). They have unlimited time to do what they need- and they will need all the time they have. This is not because they are idiots (far from it!), but they… they tend not to get along very well… I worry about this project, but it must be done.

William and Leilani are far more alike than they think.

-From Doctor Soichiro Sanda's personal notebook

. . .

The only sound in the room was the soft hum of the LED lights above them and Call preparing the workstation. There were quite a few tools out that she knew William White liked to be in a particular location, along with making sure that the disabled Patch unit had the parts it needed to be repaired to begin with. From the observation deck, Doctor Soichiro Sanda was messing around with the room's intercom system to make sure that it was still in working order.

After giving the mic a few taps (and getting the feedback from it), Sanda then cleared his throat to say into it; "How do things look down there Call?"

"Everything is already for the repair Doctor Sanda." Call decided in her usual toneless voice, directing herself to the observation deck because looking away from him while answering would have been rude.

"Good!" Sanda declared as he clapped his hands together. "Very good! Now we just need to wait for the two of them to arrive. Here's hoping that it goes just as smoothly..."

"I will contact Beck to let him know that we are ready." Call nodded.

"Yes please." agreed Sanda. "I'll get into contact with Leilani."

As the duo contacted their respective contacts, Beck was calmly walking through Sanda Technologies while waiting. He knew he had arrived too early, but it was better than waiting around at home. Doctor White was in the facilities as well, Beck just couldn't tell you where exactly.

"Beck," Call's voice suddenly said from over his headphones, "Do you read me? We are ready to begin the repair."

"Alright." the bot agreed. "Meet you there soon." and without further ado he started in that direction. Beck knew the layout of Sanda Tech well enough that all he had to do was keep walking down the corridor he was in, make a right at the crossroads, and then the training room would be the tenth door on the right. When Beck reached the crossroads, he saw someone come from the opposite direction; when he realized who it was, he froze.

Leilani Blaise walked down the hall of Sanda Tech with the attitude of a snobbish movie star. Her hair was tied up tightly behind her, a pair of sunglasses hid her eyes from the public, and if it weren't for her sneakers, you would have assumed that she had dressed for an important business meeting. Not far from her was Ray- the older looking bot was fully decked out in her vermillion armor. The scowl on her face easily illustrated to everyone that if they dared to even speak to Leilani, Ray was going to serve their head on a silver platter post haste. Beck wondered for a moment if her weapons were even active at the moment, and then he shook the thought away. He didn't want to know that. It was easier not thinking about it.

"Hey Beck." Leilani greeted in passing. For a moment, it utterly surprised the little bot. Leilani had acknowledged him? And without a snarky comment?! So, it was true that she did have _some_ respect for Beck and not for Doctor White, his creator, but it certainly wasn't _normal_ for her either. By the time he could stutter out a reply, she was already gone. Without meaning to, Beck gave a sigh of relief before remembering that she was heading to the same place he was going. With a small flinch, he continued to the training room.

Turns out, he was the last one to arrive in all said and done. Doctor White was already in the training room making sure that everything was where it should be for him to start. Call and Doctor Sanda were in the observation deck to ensure that they had covered all the bases needed for the repair. Ray and Leilani were in a corner with Ray giving the human many possessive kisses around Leilani's jawline and her neck. Beck stared at them for a bit too long- Leilani noticed him and in giving a genuinely guilty looking expression, she shied Ray off of her. The little robot looked away when Ray kissed the human before Leilani left to enter the training room with Doctor White.

Once everyone was settled in their positions, Doctor Sanda tested the intercom system one more time before asking, "Are you two ready?"

"Yes sir." Leilani and Doctor White answered at the same time, each giving a bow of reverence.

"Good. Now, as you can see before you," Sanda started, "This Patch unit has been decommissioned. At the moment, the cause of its failure is still unknown; it will be your job to find the error, correct it, and successfully reactivate the Patch unit. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." the two agreed once more.

"Well then, you may begin."

"Sounds easy enough." White mumbled to himself as he looked over the unit. "The first thing to do would be-"

"To crack it open." Leilani interrupted with a smirk.

"What?" White snapped. "No! We give it a charge to see if it's a battery failure."

"You can find that out by taking it apart too." came the counter argument. "Remove the battery and you can test it separately. If it's an error that's causing the battery to short out (say, oh I don't know, corrosion), we would know by taking it out of the unit."

"No. We charge the unit and see how it responds to the stimulus. If the unit does not turn on, then we will know that there is an internal issue. If it does turn on for a moment or two, then it is likely that the cause is the battery."

"And what if it fries the unit _more_, nimrod?" Leilani snorted. "Ever have a faulty laptop charger that killed the battery off too?"

White started to give a reply, but Leilani cut him off.

"What am I talking about?" she mused. "You don't know anything about batteries- I've been trying to fix one of yours for the past five years!"

"You're not fixing anything- you're illegally modifying _my_ design."

"And making it better. Perfect, even. Who knows, if I modify it enough I could patent it as my own creation."

Hearing this, all the color drained from William White's face as he got dangerously close to the young woman. "You. Wouldn't. Dare." he hissed.

To this, Leilani smirked. "Try me."

That was what inspired them to glare at each other directly in the eye for a rather long amount of time. At the same time, they both snapped their heads to look up at the observation deck. "Sanda!" the two of them even whined in unison.

"I can't work like this!" White declared.

"I'm 19, sir." Leilani mused, not even looking at White. "I have a reason to be an ass, but he's, like, 69 and not any better."

"I'm 41." grumbled White under his breath.

"I-I'm sorry you two," Sanda tried to argue, "But you can not leave until the Patch unit is fixed. We _all_ agreed to that. R-remember…?"

"Faintly." Doctor White muttered.

"That's 'cuz you're ancient." Leilani mused back.

Back at the observation deck, the others were starting to get annoyed at the duo's antics.

"If they keep arguing, that Patch unit is never going to fixed..." Beck noted with some sadness mixed in his voice.

"I will admit," Call sighed, "I am very glad they are not working on me."

"Rest assured Call," Sanda then told her, "Only I am authorized to change your programming. Anyone else will have to go through me."

"Although it would not be much of a fight," noted Call, "I do appreciate the attempted reassurance Doctor Sanda."

"No one but the flower is allowed to touch me." Ray grumbled under her breath. "Not even Will."

Beck looked at Ray curiously before looking back at the professor and Leilani. No one was allowed to modify his code either expect for his own creator. Leilani had been able to fix him after a fight with Ray, but she hadn't changed him. Did he want her to? In his own opinion, Leilani seemed just as skilled as Doctor White. In that moment Beck decided that he would let Leilani change his code if it needed to be done. Maybe if -for whatever reason or another- Doctor White was no longer able to fix him, Leilani would be his next and only choice.

"Fine," Doctor White finally gave in, "We'll open up the Patch and separate the battery from the unit."

Leilani did not object, instead giving a wide smile filled with attitude as she reached for a screwdriver.

"I need the allen wrench." White then opposed.

"We're supposed to be working together." Leilani objected. "And I want to work with this."

White gave a roll of his eyes and let her do it. Her watched her with scrutinized eye as she opened the back of the unit to reveal its battery compartment. As Leilani worked to get the battery out of its wiring, she noticed something.

"Hey," she said to White while swinging an overhead lamp into the open crevice, "Check this out."

Annoyed for a moment, White looked at the area she was pointing too and easily saw the issue as well.

"The Auto-Dispense Motor is jammed." he noted.

"That's not all," Leilani agreed, showing him the wires around the motor. "The overload shorted out the Item-Projector and battery wires. If we had gone along with charging the unit beforehand-"

"It would have likely exploded..." White finished. "Between the Auto-Dispense Motor being jammed and the influx of rerouted power to the battery, it would have caused a level 6 xel implosion."

"I've never seen the inside of a Patch look this messed up before." Leilani said, mostly to herself. "Is there any safe way to fix it?"

"We'd have to gut it."

The young woman bit her lip. She wasn't used to gutting out robots to make them work again. Doctor White sensed this and located a small drill to use.

"We have to start with the faulty wires." he told her. "But carefully. As I take out the motherboard, could you handle the item index chip?"

"Sure." Leilani nodded. After making sure that each of them had the tools they needed, Leilani and Doctor White moved in unison as they removed the components inside the Patch unit. Despite arguing only ten minutes before, the duo moved as a single unit while removing everything inside the Patch. Their observers could barely believe their eyes.

"Sizzling synergy!" Sanda exclaimed. "Look at them go!"

Beck peered a bit closer, just to make sure he was seeing it right. He would admit that they didn't truly work together like, say, a pair of old friends would. But, it felt more like the two shared a very similar mindset that enabled them to work together. They weren't friend or foe, but just… geniuses. _Equal_ geniuses that had finally found a way to cooperate.

The stunned silence of the observation deck continued as Doctor White and Leilani then reassembled the Patch unit. Leilani was now moving a bit faster than Doctor White -as this was how she learned robotics, after all- and her memory of where everything went was even more impressive. Everyone watched as the two placed a new battery in the Patch and everyone held their breath as they waited for the unit to turn back on again.

As the lights on the Patch's face started to light up and its side arms rose, Beck almost felt the need to cheer.

"We did it." Leilani marveled. Doctor White seemed to stiffen a little at the idea, but it was true. Sucking up much of his pride, he turned to her and offered his hand out to her.

"Good work." he said, toneless and without any love lost. Or earned, for that matter.

Leilani looked at his hand before looking up at him. With an amused grin, she took hold of his hand and shook it. "You could have done better." she teased. White didn't even bother to respond before the two turned to the observation deck and gave a finishing bow to their observers.

"Excellent job you two!" Sanda congratulated over the intercom. "Since you have done what I requested, you may leave."

"Beck, I'm going home." Doctor White immediately said back and without further note he left.

"Raychel, don't go anywhere, I'm coming up to get you." Leilani then said. Ray gave a firm nod and stepped back a bit. Beck eased back a little as well.

"Call, can you recover the Patch unit?" Doctor Sanda requested. "Take it to R&D and have them run the usual productivity tests."

"Yes sir." the robotess agreed. Beck watched her and then looked back at Sanda. Why would he want the Patch unit to be looked over? Was it to make sure that it was completely operational again? As Leilani entered the observation deck to greet Ray, Beck had a sudden, random thought.

What was Doctor Sanda planning between Leilani and Doctor White?


End file.
